Blessings from Boston: Hopefully this works‏

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Hopefully this works‏

Alright I just noticed I talk a lot about service in my e-mail in this area but o well its what we do here. So here are the past two weeks of e-mails that I guess some people aren’t getting!!!!!!

Why hello there everybody! So this week has been pretty good I must say. For the most part though we did a heck of a lot of service, which I do enjoy. So let’s see what days did we do service. So Tuesday we did like we usually do with brother moore. We cut some wood and also went and got some wood from off the top of his property. Aslo when we were up there, E. P. showed me a swing that they had that their kids use to swing on when they were much younger. This swing puts you WAY up in the air and is kinda scary but pretty awesom at the same time. Then on Friday i believe we did some service as well. We helped somebody move into a new apartment and that took up the better part of the day. Saturday we played soem b-ball with the ward till about 12. After that we went to the Jameson house and helped them paint the basement for a good 2 hours. Then around 3 we went to Brother Ardiobonies place and helped him stack/move some wood around his yard and that took till about 6 and then he fed us dinner, so that took up pretty much the rest of the day. This next week we will be having a lot of service opportunities again which I’m excited for. We were able to teach Tom this week. E. P. and i were trying to figure out what we should teach him, but neither of us could think of anything so we finally decided to pick up where we left of last time and that was on the Holy Ghost. At first things were going alright. We asked Tom a simple question about the H.G. and he answered that question for a good 10-15 minutes. When we finally got thing back on track and we were starting to bring in the spirit, the phone rang......this always happens and it's quite annoying. Well sadly the phone call was a bearer of bad news and what little we had of the spirit in the room just vanished like that. So we tried to bring it back again, but we were uncessfull. From that experience i could tell that the adversary was trying really hard to keep the spirit from being there and I must say he did a pretty good job at it, but that doesn’t change anything :) we will just go to Tom's house again and hope that the environment will be better this go around. But the cool thing is that Tom needed to hear about the H.G. and how he can help us through our trials and make things seams a bit lighter then they were before. So all in all i would say that it was still a successful visit :). Well that’s pretty much all the excitement ive had this week. I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!

Alright so yes I am staying in Bristol and so is elder P. :) so pretty much no new changes this transfer and I’m ok with that. So my mom has asked me for this month to put something up about luck with the Holy Ghost. So I’m going to do the best that I can this month to see if I can pull something off every week to tell you about. So this week I had something in mind, not really sure if it was luck or not but it was still a simple but interesting thing that happened. So like i said it was pretty simple. E. P and i were having personally study one day and when we finished we went into comp study. Well most missionaries talk a little bit about what they studied and try to learn from one another. Anyway I was reading in Alma somewhere I believe and it was on being forgiving of our sins, and E. P was reading something about committing sins and how they can condemn us. Those two tings were exactly what we needed to teach Tim and Carol that day and it was just kind of cool to think that we were both prompted to study those two different topics so that we would be prepared that day to teach :) so that’s the story I have for you this week. So what happened this week, well WE GOT BROTHER ARDIBONI TO CHURCH.....AND HIS WIFE!!!! It was pretty epic actually. We went over there Sunday morning and said Brother Ardibonie....your coming to church today. He gave a couple of excuses like I don’t know where my clothing is, then his wife said o it’s in the closet haha. He said a couple other things as well but finally he just said "Ah the heck with it I might as well give up and go" lol anyway it was really awesome and great to see him at church. He hasn't been to church in about 5 years I think so that was a great accomplishment for E. P and I :). Let’s see what else happened....so I just realized that I have me new planner on me so I don’t remember what happened lat week haha, o well :). O ya so the other day I made a dinner for one of our members who just had surgery on her spine, she had a ruptured disc so she has been in a lot of pain lately, but the surgery went well. Anyway I made her chicken and rice and just to let my mom know what kind it was, I used the breading that you sent with me when I left on my mish. It was pretty good :) not as good as my mom makes it but what the heck I think I did a pretty good job :) well i think that it for now :) i love you all and i hope you have a great week!

Well there you go :) love you all have a great week!
-- Love

Elder Camron Foust

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Mercy

When our hearts are filled with the love of God, we become “kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving.” My dear brothers and sisters, not long ago I received a letter from a concerned mother who pleaded for a general conference talk on a topic that would specifically benefit her two children. A rift had grown between them, and they had stopped speaking to each other. The mother was heartbroken. In the letter she assured me that a general conference message on this topic would reconcile her children, and all would be well. This good sister’s sincere and heartfelt plea was just one of several promptings I have received over these last months that I should say a few words today on a topic that is a growing concern—not only for a worried mother but for many in the Church and, indeed, the world. I am impressed by the faith of this loving mother that a general conference talk could help heal the relationship between her children. I am sure that her confidence was not so much in the abilities of the speakers but in “the virtue of the word of God,” which has a “more powerful effect upon the minds of the people than … anything else.” Dear sister, I pray that the Spirit will touch your children’s hearts. When Relationships Go Bad Strained and broken relationships are as old as humankind itself. Ancient Cain was the first who allowed the cancer of bitterness and malice to canker his heart. He tilled the ground of his soul with envy and hatred and allowed these feelings to ripen until he did the unthinkable—murdering his own brother and becoming, in the process, the father of Satan’s lies. Since those first days the spirit of envy and hatred has led to some of the most tragic stories in history. It turned Saul against David, the sons of Jacob against their brother Joseph, Laman and Lemuel against Nephi, and Amalickiah against Moroni. I imagine that every person on earth has been affected in some way by the destructive spirit of contention, resentment, and revenge. Perhaps there are even times when we recognize this spirit in ourselves. When we feel hurt, angry, or envious, it is quite easy to judge other people, often assigning dark motives to their actions in order to justify our own feelings of resentment. The Doctrine Of course, we know this is wrong. The doctrine is clear. We all depend on the Savior; none of us can be saved without Him. Christ’s Atonement is infinite and eternal. Forgiveness for our sins comes with conditions. We must repent, and we must be willing to forgive others. Jesus taught: “Forgive one another; for he that forgiveth not … [stands] condemned before the Lord; for there remaineth in him the greater sin” and “Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.” Of course, these words seem perfectly reasonable—when applied to someone else. We can so clearly and easily see the harmful results that come when others judge and hold grudges. And we certainly don’t like it when people judge us. But when it comes to our own prejudices and grievances, we too often justify our anger as righteous and our judgment as reliable and only appropriate. Though we cannot look into another’s heart, we assume that we know a bad motive or even a bad person when we see one. We make exceptions when it comes to our own bitterness because we feel that, in our case, we have all the information we need to hold someone else in contempt. The Apostle Paul, in his letter to the Romans, said that those who pass judgment on others are “inexcusable.” The moment we judge someone else, he explained, we condemn ourselves, for none is without sin.5 Refusing to forgive is a grievous sin—one the Savior warned against. Jesus’s own disciples had “sought occasion against [each other] and forgave not one another in their hearts; and for this evil they were afflicted and sorely chastened.” Our Savior has spoken so clearly on this subject that there is little room for private interpretation. “I, the Lord, will forgive whom I will forgive,” but then He said, “… of you it is required to forgive all men.” May I add a footnote here? When the Lord requires that we forgive all men, that includes forgiving ourselves. Sometimes, of all the people in the world, the one who is the hardest to forgive—as well as perhaps the one who is most in need of our forgiveness—is the person looking back at us in the mirror. The Bottom Line This topic of judging others could actually be taught in a two-word sermon. When it comes to hating, gossiping, ignoring, ridiculing, holding grudges, or wanting to cause harm, please apply the following: Stop it! It’s that simple. We simply have to stop judging others and replace judgmental thoughts and feelings with a heart full of love for God and His children. God is our Father. We are His children. We are all brothers and sisters. I don’t know exactly how to articulate this point of not judging others with sufficient eloquence, passion, and persuasion to make it stick. I can quote scripture, I can try to expound doctrine, and I will even quote a bumper sticker I recently saw. It was attached to the back of a car whose driver appeared to be a little rough around the edges, but the words on the sticker taught an insightful lesson. It read, “Don’t judge me because I sin differently than you.” We must recognize that we are all imperfect—that we are beggars before God. Haven’t we all, at one time or another, meekly approached the mercy seat and pleaded for grace? Haven’t we wished with all the energy of our souls for mercy—to be forgiven for the mistakes we have made and the sins we have committed? Because we all depend on the mercy of God, how can we deny to others any measure of the grace we so desperately desire for ourselves? My beloved brothers and sisters, should we not forgive as we wish to be forgiven? The Love of God Is this difficult to do? Yes, of course. Forgiving ourselves and others is not easy. In fact, for most of us it requires a major change in our attitude and way of thinking—even a change of heart. But there is good news. This “mighty change” of heart is exactly what the gospel of Jesus Christ is designed to bring into our lives. How is it done? Through the love of God. When our hearts are filled with the love of God, something good and pure happens to us. We “keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world.” The more we allow the love of God to govern our minds and emotions—the more we allow our love for our Heavenly Father to swell within our hearts—the easier it is to love others with the pure love of Christ. As we open our hearts to the glowing dawn of the love of God, the darkness and cold of animosity and envy will eventually fade. As always, Christ is our exemplar. In His teachings as in His life, He showed us the way. He forgave the wicked, the vulgar, and those who sought to hurt and to do Him harm. Jesus said it is easy to love those who love us; even the wicked can do that. But Jesus Christ taught a higher law. His words echo through the centuries and are meant for us today. They are meant for all who desire to be His disciples. They are meant for you and me: “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.” When our hearts are filled with the love of God, we become “kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving [each other], even as God for Christ’s sake [forgave us].” The pure love of Christ can remove the scales of resentment and wrath from our eyes, allowing us to see others the way our Heavenly Father sees us: as flawed and imperfect mortals who have potential and worth far beyond our capacity to imagine. Because God loves us so much, we too must love and forgive each other. The Way of the Disciple My dear brothers and sisters, consider the following questions as a self-test: Do you harbor a grudge against someone else? Do you gossip, even when what you say may be true? Do you exclude, push away, or punish others because of something they have done? Do you secretly envy another? Do you wish to cause harm to someone? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you may want to apply the two-word sermon from earlier: stop it! In a world of accusations and unfriendliness, it is easy to gather and cast stones. But before we do so, let us remember the words of the One who is our Master and model: “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone.” Brothers and sisters, let us put down our stones. Let us be kind. Let us forgive. Let us talk peacefully with each other. Let the love of God fill our hearts. “Let us do good unto all men.” The Savior promised: “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over. … For with the same measure that [you use] it shall be measured to you again.” Shouldn’t this promise be enough to always focus our efforts on acts of kindness, forgiveness, and charity instead of on any negative behavior? Let us, as disciples of Jesus Christ, return good for evil. Let us not seek revenge or allow our wrath to overcome us. “For it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. “Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink. … “Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.” Remember: in the end, it is the merciful who obtain mercy. As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, wherever we may be, let us be known as a people who “have love one to another.” Love One Another Brothers and sisters, there is enough heartache and sorrow in this life without our adding to it through our own stubbornness, bitterness, and resentment. We are not perfect. The people around us are not perfect. People do things that annoy, disappoint, and anger. In this mortal life it will always be that way. Nevertheless, we must let go of our grievances. Part of the purpose of mortality is to learn how to let go of such things. That is the Lord’s way. Remember, heaven is filled with those who have this in common: They are forgiven. And they forgive. Lay your burden at the Savior’s feet. Let go of judgment. Allow Christ’s Atonement to change and heal your heart. Love one another. Forgive one another. The merciful will obtain mercy. Of this I testify in the name of the One who loved so well and so completely that He gave His life for us, His friends—in the sacred name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Hopefully this works‏

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